Friday, August 20, 2004

Matthews, as usual was boorish and partisan during this interview complained about by Michelle, but I wmust take issue with her chastisement of him on one point.

Here's Michelle:

"As I am seated at the table with Matthews who I am meeting for the first time he cracks a joke--and not in a well-meaning way--about how I look. There are quite a few people who are hung up on this.Are you sure you are old enough to be on the show What are you 28? I grit my teeth. He badgers me again with the same question. I politely answer his question and supply my age."

Now, men are stupid. And we rarely listen. But we often attempt to complement women on their appearance and, speaking for all men, it occurs to us that saying a woman looks rather yong is often the tact we take (we also use: "Have you lost weight?", "Nice hair.")

Why? Well it could be that women in this country spend about $ 500 billion a year on makeup clothes and surgery in order to make them look younger. Hours upon hours are spent in the mornings and evenings working on their face, hair, and appearance in general. Women lie about their age constantly. Getting a woman to reveal her age is tantamount to getting President Bush to admit he has made a mistake in office.

We are trained you see at this point, to say "My how young you look!" as an attempt to ingratiate ourselves to you.

So don;t blame Chris Matthews for this gaffe, dear Michelle, you should blame generations upon generations of women who have beaten it into our heads that younger is better, and we had better notice.